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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 12/27/2006 : 08:27:45
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Back around the 1930s, a certain crop pest was causing some minor inconvenience in Australia's sugar cane fields. So, those rocket scientists who always seem to come up with most of the brilliant, quick-fix solutions (all nations are afflicted with these), decided to fight the cane beetle with the voracious cane toad, an animal they knew exactly nothing about. The toad, the reasoning went, would eliminate the beetle, not cause pollution, sing pleasantly at night, and everybody would be the more prosperous for it's presence. Well, guess what....?
The beetle is the more prosperous for the toad's presence because Bufo Marinus favors their natural predators and has pretty well decimated them. And that ain't all....
When these toads find a spawning pool, they eat any other, smaller amphibian that might also be using it. They are highly prolific, have no natural enemies, and their range is rapidly expanding. And that ain't all.....
If the article I'm passing on is accurate, specimens have been found to have longer legs than normal; giving them slightly better mobility, and thus allowing them, as a species, to spread more rapidly. I'm reading that they're almost to Darwin, now.
Darwin..... Charles, you sad, old sack of shit, why did you have to go and invent Evolution? This is all your fault! Now we got to bring in the Army to combat the Menace of the Killer Bug-Sniper!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Ghost_Skeptic
SFN Regular
Canada
510 Posts |
 Posted - 12/27/2006 : 08:40:32 [Permalink]
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| The toads at the leading edge of the invasion have been found to have longer legs than the stragglers. Here is an MP3 Audio File on the subject. |
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. / You can send a kid to college but you can't make him think." - B.B. King
History is made by stupid people - The Arrogant Worms
"The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism." - William Osler
"Religion is the natural home of the psychopath" - Pat Condell
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" - Thomas Jefferson |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2006 : 10:37:17 [Permalink]
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I, for one, salute our new amphibian masters, and wish to remind them how important it is to have loyal propaganda writers to keep the lesser species under their iron control.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2006 : 10:55:19 [Permalink]
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You forgot to mention the primary reason that these are a major problem,
The large predators in Austrailia have no defense against these toads, when a snake or other predator bites one of these it excretes its toxins and kills the predator and being that there is no evolutionary reason for Austrailian snakes/other predators to not eat toads they are killing off many of the snakes in huge numbers. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2006 : 12:54:11 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner
I, for one, salute our new amphibian masters, and wish to remind them how important it is to have loyal propaganda writers to keep the lesser species under their iron control.
ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!
Few of we foolish mortals realize that we are already lost! You are wise to join the Mighty Forces of Bufo before the End. Praise The Master and, when he has conqured, He will raise you high in his benevolent tyranny. He will let you eat lots of bugs, too!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2006 : 13:30:56 [Permalink]
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HYPNOTOAD?
"Well filthy, as the scientist who introduced this fine toad to Australia, I rebit see nothing wrong rebit with it!" -Dr. Humperdinck Fangboner, Toad Specialist
"Oh yeah, you wanna piece a' me?" - Crock, Hypnotoad General
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2006 : 17:20:20 [Permalink]
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I didn't know my nephew Hump hung out at SFN! He should quit lurking and give us the benefit of his vast wisdom....
And I remind: FL has a robust population of B. Marinus. And they too, are expanding their range; a hint of climate change. Another is that I have read of armadillos being sighted in southern IL. These sightings have been confirmed by the road crews who shoveled their corpses off the highway. "'Possum-on-the-halfshell" goes north with the marsupial kind....
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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| Edited by - filthy on 12/27/2006 17:26:56 |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2006 : 17:54:30 [Permalink]
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I suppose someone might suggest bringing in yet another predator to Florida to eat the toads, but then again, it seems they've learned a lot more about the delicate balances of nature these days.
This is of course a serious issue (despite my weirdo humor). Polar bears are also finally making the news, suffering from misaligned seasonal ice melts leading to near starvation. With continued global warming it could get a lot worse and/or stranger for life on Earth. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2006 : 18:06:13 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Chippewa
I suppose someone might suggest bringing in yet another predator to Florida to eat the toads, but then again, it seems they've learned a lot more about the delicate balances of nature these days.
This is of course a serious issue (despite my weirdo humor). Polar bears are also finally making the news, suffering from misaligned seasonal ice melts leading to near starvation. With continued global warming it could get a lot worse and/or stranger for life on Earth.
They could bring in Filthy to predate upon the toads. He's probably got half a dozen recipes just for grilling them. But soon the state would be overrun with his offspring. Yup, sometimes the "fixes" are worse than the problems.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Ghost_Skeptic
SFN Regular
Canada
510 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2006 : 00:01:49 [Permalink]
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| I see the rapid Cane Toad evolution as an example of puntuated equilibrium. Cane Toads were probably not changing much until they were placed in a new environment. Now they are evolving rapidly as result of this abrubt change. I wonder if this rapid evolution has occured in other introduced species. |
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. / You can send a kid to college but you can't make him think." - B.B. King
History is made by stupid people - The Arrogant Worms
"The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism." - William Osler
"Religion is the natural home of the psychopath" - Pat Condell
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" - Thomas Jefferson |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2006 : 02:05:48 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Ghost_Skeptic
I see the rapid Cane Toad evolution as an example of puntuated equilibrium. Cane Toads were probably not changing much until they were placed in a new environment. Now they are evolving rapidly as result of this abrubt change. I wonder if this rapid evolution has occured in other introduced species.
Yup, on both counts -- may I reintroduce you to our newly aquired (1930s -- a truly foul decade for imported species) friend, the fire ant. Show me a man who hates fire ants and I'll show you one who has some experience with the little rotters.
When I was a child in FL, we would sometimes take a shovel and scoop the top off a fire ant nest and drop it on another. The ants would fight each other to the death. That doesn't happen so much any more. Now, often, the workers from the two colonies actually join forces, as it were. The accompaning article explains why.
Darwin you bastard, you've boogered us again!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2006 : 02:15:32 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner
quote:
Originally posted by Chippewa
I suppose someone might suggest bringing in yet another predator to Florida to eat the toads, but then again, it seems they've learned a lot more about the delicate balances of nature these days.
This is of course a serious issue (despite my weirdo humor). Polar bears are also finally making the news, suffering from misaligned seasonal ice melts leading to near starvation. With continued global warming it could get a lot worse and/or stranger for life on Earth.
They could bring in Filthy to predate upon the toads. He's probably got half a dozen recipes just for grilling them. But soon the state would be overrun with his offspring. Yup, sometimes the "fixes" are worse than the problems.
Nah, the Tourist and Gimcrack industry has a handle on it. 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2006 : 03:57:02 [Permalink]
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Funny! But what's so lucky about a gimcrack that is made out of a demonstrably unlucky individual poor sap of a toad? Is this some kinda reverse similarity magic, like "a hair of the dog that bit you," or homeopathy? (I'm not trying to believe magic/luck, just to understand its internal rules, if any.)
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2006 : 06:09:13 [Permalink]
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Ants are so amazingly diverse, they fascinate me.
My favortie is the one who raids the nest of a weaker ant species and steals their eggs, their eggs hatch and they dont know that they are captives so they slave away as workers for their new masters even keeping the stolen eggs in good shape, then when those die out they go steal some more eggs.
Then there is the Lemon tree ant which has herbacide in its bite, they will bite the leaf stems of every leaf of every plant which is nearby their lemon tree, the bites proceed to kill the leafs and then the plants, leaving a nice odd hole in the dense jungle where the lemon tree gets all the nutrients.
Back to the topic, if you ever go on a Bufo Toad Whacking Operation ala The Simpsons, make sure you wear goggles and keep your mouth shut as their prodigious venomous secrections tend to go flying when smashed. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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